Boilerplate (text)

Boilerplate is a standard language template of any kind, that can be reused without greatly changing the original. The term is used in reference to statements, contracts and computer code.

"Boiler plate" originally referred to the rolled steel used to make water boilers.

The analogy between the curved steel used to make water boilers and curved metal used to print prepared text was based both on the curved shape of the plate and on the fact that it had been prepared elsewhere before being incorporated into a downstream producer’s finished product.

In the field of printing, the term dates back to the early 1900s. From the 1890s onwards, printing plates of text for widespread reproduction such as advertisements or syndicated columns were cast or stamped in steel (instead of the much softer and less durable lead alloys used otherwise) ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. By analogy, they came to be known as 'boilerplates'. One large supplier to newspapers of this kind of boilerplate was the Western Newspaper Union, which supplied "ready-to-print stories [which] contained national or international news" to papers with smaller geographic footprints, which could include advertisements pre-printed next to the conventional content.

Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. The modern equivalent is the press release boilerplate, or "boiler," a paragraph or two that describes the company and its products or services.

In contract law, the term "boilerplate language" describes the parts of a contract that are considered standard.

Boilerplate language may also exist in pre-created form letters on the Internet for such things as issues to be broached by a politician based on an issue ad, requests that a cable or satellite operator add a cable network to a system, pre-written complaints about a product that is opposed by groups that create such letters, or online petitions. The person requesting the action usually only needs to type or sign his or her name at the end of the pre-written greeting and body.

In computer programming, boilerplate is the sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration. Such boilerplate is particularly salient when the programmer must include a lot of code for minimal functionality. The need for boilerplate can be reduced through high-level mechanisms.

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